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"To be, or not to be" a startup accelerator alumni. This is a question that often co-founders end up discussing, during the early days of the startup journey. There are some co-founders who believe that the founding team is too good to be baby sited by mentors at an accelerator program. Particularly founders who themselves have been senior executives at larger corporations, and/or have run a successful lifestyle business might find it particularly challenging to go back to school. Younger co-founders might think of an accelerator program as a quick route to stardom. The unfair advantage of an accelerator is often quite different from what is presumed by both these camps.

So here are the top 5 reasons why your startup should join an accelerator,

1. Provides an ecosystem of support

Accelerators often come with additional support systems such as law firms, patent attorneys, regulatory experts and CFO services interested in advising early stage startups. These services are often rendered pro bono or at a reduced price. Accelerators such as Dreamit Health, Luminate, RebelBio are designed with a focus on a particular industry. This allows the founding team to get quick access to key industry experts and advisors who are willing to work with a startup. Some accelerators such as Luminate, 43North, and NDRC are designed to bring in early-stage companies in an already existing ecosystem of experts.

The founding team also gets to interact and learn from other startups in the cohort, facing challenges unique to the industry and/or geography. Often times the first paying customer willing to demo a startup's product comes from a soft introduction by a mentor or a participant in the accelerator.

“Accelerators provide infrastructure, support and training that would otherwise be time-consuming for start-ups. Accelerators also provide access to an entire ecosystem that supports a start-up that may otherwise feel isolated ” says Sujatha Ramanujan, Managing Director, Luminate Accelerator, New York.

2. Develop skills for the founding team

The founding team may lack a good understanding of one or more areas of operation. Experienced founders often find that the tools and strategies that work for large corporations or lifestyle businesses, are utterly useless when applied to a rapidly growing startup. Accelerators help founding teams build critical strategy documents such as a business plan, a five-year financial forecast, a sales and marketing strategy, and a technology roadmap. Accelerators also help the founding team in identifying gaps in critical skill sets and then build a short-term as well as a long-term hiring strategy.

3. Helps build the first iteration of your startup

Most accelerators end with a "Demo Day", where participating startups pitch (often on a podium) for follow-on investments from local or global VCs. Although in very few cases these pitches turn into cheques, the process helps the founding team build the first iteration of their business. The founders and the first few employees come together as a team to define a target customer, identify their pain points, and come up with a potential solution. Startups, often build a version of the solution which at-least one customer is willing to pay for, the so-called minimum viable product (MVP). This grueling 3-6 month often ends up as a test of the mettle of the founding team as well as the general health of the startup idea.

4. De-risks future investors

Often the startup accelerator is the first time that you have raised external funding. This, in turn, encourages Angel investors (friends, family, a local Angel or a local Angel network) to invest in a follow-on investment round. The primary reason it that Angel investors feel that "graduating" from an accelerator de-risks to a certain degree the business plan, a sales and marketing strategy, and a technology roadmap. Also since the founding team has spent three to six months in an accelerator they are often able to show that they can work together towards achieving a common goal.

5. Funding

One aspect of a startup accelerator that is often ignored, is the actual money that they invest in super early stage companies. It not only gives the founding team a few months of runway, but actually helps them prove that someone is actually willing to put in money to back their idea.

In addition to pitching to traditional VC firms, accelerators often mentor founders on how to apply for government grants (Such as Small Business Innovation Research grants in U.S. and Horizon2020 in EU). Such grants are often the seed round of funding for technology or social startups. In-fact business accelerators and incubators based out of universities are particularly designed in helping startups to secure these grants.

In addition, the office space provided by accelerators (often for an indefinite period) is enormously helpful as it helps the startup to sustain itself without burning its cash reserve. Accelerators also help startups get software tools and services such as Google Cloud Platform, Amazon Web Services, HubSpot for free or at a reduced price. "The investment is critical to enable the team to dedicate their time and effort to the venture as well as ensuring the accelerator has 'skin in the game'," says Carl Power, Head of Venture Investment in NDRC, Ireland.

However, the most important thing to remember for early-stage founders is that the top three global accelerators Y Combinator, 500 Startups, and Techstars report about ten percent of their portfolio companies as successful exits, according to Forbes. The percentage of successful exits quickly drops to one to two percent in the case of the top 10 global accelerators such as Plug and Play, SOSV, Startupbootcamp, MassChallenge, Wayra and NDRC. So getting into an accelerator is by no means a clear indication of success. It often is the first important stepping stone towards building a successful business.